Serif Extends 40% Off Sale for Affinity V2 Applications to January

[Bobby H]

Anyone who uses Affinity Designer might have received the email notice yesterday. The second versions of Affinity Designer, Publisher and Photo were released in November. The initial 40% off sale was about to end, but Serif has extended the V2 launch sale until January 25. I'll have that much more time to try to make a tough choice.

For now the individual apps are $40.99 for Windows or MacOS and $11.99 for iPad OS. And there's the "Universal License" option: $99 gets you all 3 applications and those licenses work on Windows, OSX and iPad. I personally don't think I have all that much need for Photo or Publisher, but I'll think about it. One thing I'm not thrilled about: there is still no support for OpenType Variable fonts. I'm leaning a little more and more on Variable Fonts with certain design tasks.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

The Affinity suite is taking huge steps to become a serious competitor to the big ones, but still has a long way to go in some areas and is not an alternative for me, yet.
For that price though, I didn't hesitate to buy the whole suite, just because I like some features and because my contribution will help developing it further, hopefully.

One benefit with having all three is that Affinity Publisher works as a hub (StudioLink) and if you open a file in Publisher, you can instantly switch to Designer or Photo to work on different parts with these app's specific features.

 

[RandyDe]

Anyone who uses Affinity Designer might have received the email notice yesterday. The second versions of Affinity Designer, Publisher and Photo were released in November. The initial 40% off sale was about to end, but Serif has extended the V2 launch sale until January 25. I'll have that much more time to try to make a tough choice.

For now the individual apps are $40.99 for Windows or MacOS and $11.99 for iPad OS. And there's the "Universal License" option: $99 gets you all 3 applications and those licenses work on Windows, OSX and iPad. I personally don't think I have all that much need for Photo or Publisher, but I'll think about it. One thing I'm not thrilled about: there is still no support for OpenType Variable fonts. I'm leaning a little more and more on Variable Fonts with certain design tasks.

I upgraded to the version 2 and have noticed improvement in Designer. I found the first version not intuitive and difficult to use compared to Adobe Illustrator. For the cheap price and no subscription fee's I think Affinity is a no brainer.

 

[marunr]

Do you know how to get the overprint function to work? I need to add a spot color for printing white, and in Illustrator you simply check overprint, and then in Onyx it recognizes the spot as white (under or over). In Affinity I have been unable to get it to work. Even when I follow the directions for overprint in the affiinity forums, it simply shows up as a solid white, not an overprint, and the image underneath is completely blocked.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

Do you know how to get the overprint function to work?

No, haven't tried it yet. (Edit: Made a quick test and overprint seems to work correctly.)
Here's a screenshot from the Help file:

 

[marunr]

I tried that, but I can't get it to work. It must be in the way it exports a pdf but I haven't found one that works yet. Thanks though.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

FWIW, I tried the PDF for Export preset and also the PDF/X-1 and X-3 presets, and overprint was kept when opening these in CorelDRAW 2021, so I assume it should work also in Onyx.
Check to make sure "Honour spot colours" is enabled in the export dialog, to prevent that the colors get converted to CMYK/RGB.

I must say I find colour handling to be a bit clumsy compared to Draw, where you can simply right click any object(s) and choose whether to overprint fill and/or outline or not.
It is also possible to preview overprints on screen in Draw.

I suggest you start a new thread if you need more help, maybe others with better knowledge will jump in.

 

[marunr]

FWIW, I tried the PDF for Export preset and also the PDF/X-1 and X-3 presets, and overprint was kept when opening these in CorelDRAW 2021, so I assume it should work also in Onyx.
Check to make sure "Honour spot colours" is enabled in the export dialog, to prevent that the colors get converted to CMYK/RGB.

I must say I find colour handling to be a bit clumsy compared to Draw, where you can simply right click any object(s) and choose whether to overprint fill and/or outline or not.
It is also possible to preview overprints on screen in Draw.

I suggest you start a new thread if you need more help, maybe others with better knowledge will jump in.

Thanks. Yeah, I tried that yesterday and it simply would not work. Tried again this morning and it worked fine...go figure. Anyway thanks for the help. We are adding Affinity because more than 2 people can use it at a time (without multiple licenses), and people at the order desk can view and dimension pdf's and illustrator files. I just want to understand how it all works as it will end up coming to me at some point.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

Glad you got it to work.
As you probably have understood, I'm on CorelDRAW (since version 2) and Designer can not yet replace it, but it is very interesting and has many nice features.

 

[Aunt LuLu]

I am glad the introduction price has been extended into Jan. I hope by then I will be able to get some production from V1. I purchased Affinity Designer & Photo in Sept. Coming from Corel Draw to Affinity products has introduced me to a new language. I unfamiliar with the terms that Affinity uses (outlines in Corel Draw and Strokes in Affinity) that learning the programs have been a challenge. I am using Udemy Online Courses to help. Pick some classes up cheap.

Laura